Cost-benefit indicator for rescheduling railway track inspection

Track inspections are normally scheduled to run at fixed interval subject to ratio of cost and benefit of preventive maintenance. Adjustments in the assigned inspection interval and/or frequency in some parts of the schedule due to disruptions is sound economically acceptable as long as the investment ratio remains larger than 1. Therefore, this study proposes a simple indicator, this is, telling whether a plan to reschedule the affected part of inspection schedule can be carried out or not. To achieve this study’s objective, the track preventive maintenance life-cycle cost model received relevant updates in prior to related cost-benefit ratio formulation. As a result, a simple but theoretically correct indicator which is based on the relationship between probability of defect detection and the absolute deviation in the ratio of two repair maintenance costs is found.